WEEK 1

Question 1

Triplett (1898)

Answer 1

Task = Fishing reels turned a silk band around a drum which was connected to a pulley by a chord – a flag had to travel around the pulley 4 times.

Conditions = Children were alone or in pairs

Results = Children were faster, slower or not impacted by being in a pair

Faster children “the arousal of their competitive instincts and the idea of a faster movement”
Slower children were “going to pieces”

Question 2

Key Terms:

Answer 2

• Positivism: the non-critical acceptance of scientific method as the only way to arrive at true knowledge

-Reductionism: Explanation of a phenomenon of a lower level analysis

Question 3

History of the ‘self’

Answer 3

• medieval: identity shaped by family membership
• 16th century: industrialisation
• 20th century: psychodynamic self
• 1990’s+: over 31k articles about the self

Question 4

Searching for the self

Answer 4

1. Self assessment: seeking out new info about ourselves in order to find out what sort of person we are
2. Self verification: seeking out information that confirms what we think we already know about ourselves
3. Self-Enhancement: the motivation to promote a favourable image of self

Sedikides (93) enhancement was found stronger than verification, which was stronger than assessment

Question 5

Van Gyn et al (90)

Answer 5

Pp’s assigned to one of 4 conditions
1. Power training on a bike + imagery
2. Power training on a bike without imagery
3. No power training + imagery
4. No power training without imagery

Findings:
-Power training improved performance
-Using imagery also improved performance

Conclusion = Imagery improves self-conception which improved performance

Question 6

Shrauger and Schoeneman (79)

Answer 6

• reviewed 62 studies
• people did not tend to see themselves as others saw them
• Instead people saw themselves as how they thought others saw them

Question 7

Carver and Scheier (81)
Two forms of self

Answer 7

1. Private self -try to match behaviour with internal standards
2. Public self - presenting yourself in a positive light

Question 8

Self- Discrepancy theory
Higgins (87)

Answer 8

• Actual self
  -Ideal self
  -Ought self
• Priming the idea self can lead to dejection, whereas priming the ought self can lead to agitation
• People with high actual-ideal self discrepancy experienced